Chapter 224 Take charge of the county magistrate! General Conquest!
Chapter 224: Take charge of the county magistrate! Conquer the general!
As the battle in Pingyun County came to an end, the result was unexpected.
The army led by Gongsun Zan was completely defeated.
Moreover, even Gongsun Zan himself was captured.
The player army that followed him was completely wiped out, and none of the players survived.
This caused a huge commotion in real forums.
You must know that before the war, countless professionals posted messages claiming that Gongsun Zan would win this battle.
Although Qin Yuan is famous, he is a small figure in history who has not even left his name.
There is no way he can be Gongsun Zan's opponent.
Gongsun Zan will be a famous prince in future history, and he has only a handful of defeats in his life.
Unexpectedly, it would fall into Qin Yuan's hands.
This has never been recorded in history, and it is also an unexpected result for countless players.
What I regret most at this time are the players who participated.
Whether it's the bandit-suppressing army or the player rebels.
Especially the alliance of players on the rebel side, they should have been able to work together with Qin Yuan to win the war together.
But they made the wrong choice at the most critical moment.
As a result, they not only failed to make any contribution in front of Gongsun Zan, but were also regarded as traitors by Qin Yuan.
Nowadays, all players in Pingyun County are blocked within the Acropolis and cannot enter or exit normally.
We can only wait for Qin Yuan's trial.
Although 300,000 players who participated in the suppression of bandits were wiped out by Qin Yuan.
However, more troops are gathering towards Pingyun County.
The only problem right now is that the players are all in disarray, lacking a key character.
Before it was Gongsun Zan, but now Gongsun Zan is captured.
It is basically impossible for the players to nominate the leader of the alliance.
No player has the strength or prestige to hold this position.
Now the players can only hope that the imperial court will send people to attack the Pingyun County rebels.
At that time, they can follow behind and drink some soup.
Although the players were shocked that Qin Yuan was able to defeat and capture Gongsun Zan, they did not think that Qin Yuan would laugh until the end.
Inside Shanggu County City.
City Lord's Mansion.
At this time, Gongsun Fu simply had a headache.
In the past few days, he had received bad news one after another from the front.
First, Gongsun Zan sent out a secret report requesting reinforcements.
Qin Yuan's strength far exceeded previous expectations.
This time, Gongsun Zan only led an army of 300,000 troops, and it was estimated that it would be difficult to completely quell the rebellion in Pingyun County.
Therefore, Gongsun Fu was asked to mobilize troops from various counties and counties for reinforcements.
But just when Gongsun Fu was mobilizing the troops from all sides, he received news that Gongsun Zan on the front line was defeated and captured.
This is nothing short of a bolt from the blue.
Gongsun Fu knew about the battle between Gongsun Zan and Qin Yuan.
However, he didn't stop it.
Because he believed that Gongsun Zan's 300,000 frontier troops, including 200,000 cavalry and 100,000 elite infantry, were all veterans who had experienced many battles and were very powerful.
Add to this the two to three hundred thousand players' troops, which adds up to an army of five to six hundred thousand.
The odds of winning are still pretty good.
Even if Qin Yuan's army cannot be defeated head-on, it should be no problem to retreat. We can also take the opportunity to understand Qin Yuan's true strength and prepare for the next battle.
Who would have thought that Qin Yuan would actually have the strength to devour all of these five to six million troops.
Moreover, Gongsun Zan and other famous generals were captured, and they could not escape even if they wanted to.
As the most important part of this plan, Gongsun Zan is also the captain guarding the border and the key training figure of the Gongsun clan.
Now that they are caught by Qin Yuan, their previous plan will undoubtedly come to nothing.
If Gongsun Zan were defeated, it would not have much impact, as long as he was fine.
With Gongsun Zan's own strength, he has no less than a million troops under his command, and he can fight back at any time.
It's just that they underestimated their enemies, whether it was Gongsun Zan or the Gongsun family behind him.
If Gongsun Zan had led an army of half a million or an army of one million, the results would have been completely different.
But now that Gongsun Zan is in the hands of Qin Yuan, if they want to send a large army to attack Pingyun County, Gongsun Zan and others will definitely be in danger for their lives.
In addition, it gives Gongsun Fu a headache.
That is, the Wuhuan tribe, which had been silent for a long time, once again invaded Pingyun County.
Pingyun County is an important line of defense for Shanggu County against foreigners.
Once Pingyun County is captured, the entire Shanggu County and even most of Youzhou will be exposed to the Wuhuan tribe.
It will not be just Pingyun County that will be harmed by that time.
He not only had to deal with the Pingyun County rebels, but also the Wuhuan Army invasion.
Therefore, he has never been able to think of the best solution to how to deal with the matter in Pingyun County.
Until he received a letter from the Pingyun County Magistrate.
The magistrate of Pingyun County is Pingdong.
Although the Ping family has already taken refuge in Qin Yuan.
However, Pingdong was still an orthodox county magistrate conferred by the imperial court, and had information channels that could communicate with higher-level officials in Youzhou and even with the imperial court.
The content of this letter expounds Qin Yuan's requirements.
One of them was to use Gongsun Zan as a threat to make Gongsun Fu recognize the status of the Ping family and Qingfeng Village, stop the previous plan, and stop coveting Pingyun County.
Otherwise, once it is discovered that troops have entered Pingyun County, Gongsun Zan will surely kill them.
In addition to the issue of Gongsun Zan, the letter also clarified that Pingyun County was facing an invasion by Wuhuan.
Although this is a huge threat to Qin Yuan, it is also a big threat to Gongsun Fu.
If Gongsun Fu agrees to Qin Yuan's conditions, Pingyun County will rely on its own strength to resist the Wuhuan tribe and will never allow the Wuhuan army to invade other counties.
At the same time, the letter also vaguely mentioned the Zhang family of Yuyang, which was closely related to Wuhuan, warning Gongsun Fu that if the two of them continued to fight, the third party would be the winner in the end.
In addition, he naturally asked for a large amount of money from Gongsun Fu in exchange for Gongsun Zan and the resistance to the Wuhuan tribe.
Although Gongsun Fu was angry that Qin Yuan dared to threaten him and even put forward many excessive conditions.
Especially when it comes to money, the lion is asking for six million taels of gold!
But to be honest, six million gold is a bit too much, but if it can be exchanged for Gongsun Zan and the problem of the Wuhuan tribe is solved, it is still worth it overall.
It's just that the plan the Gongsun family had conspired before undoubtedly cost their wives and troops.
When Gongsun Fu received the letter from Pingyun County Magistrate.
Luoyang City.
The political power center of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
A secret letter with similar content to the letter Gongsun Fu received was sent to the court.
The news about Gongsun Zan's defeat and capture shocked many officials.
The rebellion in Pingyun County was not a big deal to these officials living in Luoyang.
Events like this happen every few years.
Usually, local states and counties send troops to suppress it.
Originally, the court thought that this time the suppression would be as smooth as before.
After all, the person sent this time was Gongsun Zan, who had a great reputation for intimidating foreign races.
But this time the suppression failed!
Although the secret message sent from Pingyun County Magistrate stated that he was willing to accept the imperial court's offer and would never cause trouble again.
Regarding this matter, the court was divided into two factions.
One faction is naturally the peace-seeking faction.
Although the rebellion is true, its impact is limited to Pingyun County.
As long as Qin Yuan is given a status, this rebellion can be easily solved.
Moreover, Qin Yuan would also send troops to attack the invading Wuhuan tribe, killing two birds with one stone.
Now that the Han Dynasty is weak and has less and less control over the local area, it is definitely worth it to be able to solve this problem easily.
Since there are peace-seeking factions, there are also warring factions.
Their purpose is simple: the majesty of the Han Dynasty is inviolable.
When the rebels wreaked havoc in Pingyun County, they did not take the imperial court seriously.
In order to revive the majesty of the Han court, even if it means paying a huge price, the anti-thief forces in Qingfeng Village must be eliminated to serve as a warning to others!
For this reason, the two factions were at loggerheads.
Those who supported the peace-seeking faction were the royal family members.
They are very aware of the real situation of the Han Dynasty today, which is like an old tiger that is lingering on its last breath and can no longer withstand the hardships.
Although maintaining this situation cannot last long, there is no better way.
If there were any major changes, the Han Dynasty, which had lasted for hundreds of years, would fall apart. This was something that all the Han clan members did not want to see.
Today's court forces have a serious power struggle and are basically divided into several factions.
The Han clan clan headed by Liu Yu.
The foreign relatives faction headed by General He Jin.
An aristocratic sect dominated by gentry officials
As well as the ten permanent attendants who supported Emperor Liu Hong, they were eunuchs.
In order to fight for power and profit, these major power groups fought openly and secretly, making the entire court a mess!
Once there is something, or an important event, even if it is beneficial to the court or people's livelihood, as long as it is reminded by a hostile faction, that faction will definitely try every means to stop and destroy it.
The clan members of the Han Dynasty advocated peace as the main priority and strived to resolve the Pingyun County issue at the lowest cost.
However, the Wai Qi Faction and the Aristocratic Family Faction advocate war and will never bow to the rebel forces!
Of course, their real purpose was not for the dignity of the Han Dynasty or the imperial court.
But once a war goes to war, many interests will be involved.
For example, the general who leads the army on an expedition, the army under his command, the money and food for the expedition, etc., are all a huge cake.
In particular, with this imperial edict, many things can be done in the name of the imperial edict.
This is what they want to see.
The main fighting factions are the aristocratic family faction and the foreign relatives faction, and their voices far outnumber the clan faction.
After all, the reason for their assertion is very simple. In order to maintain the prestige of the imperial court and the Han Dynasty, no one can refute this.
At least on the surface, it seems that it is indeed for the sake of the Han clan!
However, in order to compete for the position of commander to lead the army, the family faction and the foreign relatives faction had an extremely fierce quarrel yesterday.
Even Gongsun Zan knew that putting down the rebellion was a great achievement.
Previously, they, officials in the imperial court, could not intervene in local affairs and could only watch.
Now that Gongsun Zan has been defeated, they will naturally no longer be able to send people from the Gongsun family or local Youzhou officials to handle the matter. Naturally, they will have to choose from their own people or factions.
Hundreds of officials in the court were arguing endlessly, and even Emperor Liu Hong had a headache just listening to it.
Seeing that the officials did not come up with a result, Liu Hong said I was tired and left.
In the end, the people from the clan sect also left, and only the officials from the kinship sect and the family sect were still quarreling, which did not stop at all because of the emperor's departure.
Now that the clan faction has withdrawn, the voice of the main battle has become louder, and sending troops to go on an expedition is a certainty.
But when Liu Hong returned to the palace, Shi Chang's attendants Zhang Rang, Feng Xu and others were waiting for Liu Hong to rest.
Because the Pingyun rebellion had nothing to do with the Waiqin faction.
But Liu Hong accidentally asked Zhang Rang and others how to handle the matter.
It wasn't until Zhang Rang's words that Liu Hong instantly changed his mind about the main battle.
"If Your Majesty insists on fighting, the completion of Yunxian Palace at the beginning of next year will be postponed until at least the end of the year!"
Yunxian Palace was a palace built by Liu Hong for his pleasure, and all the money spent in it was from selling his official position.
Today's Han Dynasty's treasury is already empty, and even Liu Hong's private treasury is needed!
This time, the imperial army was sent to conquer Pingyun County. The number of troops sent out was at least one million, and the military expenditure was conservatively estimated to be 10 million gold.
If the war continues into winter, military expenditures may reach up to 50 million!
This military expenditure must be paid by the imperial court, and cannot be paid by each family or official themselves.
And solving the rebels in Pingyun County is just the beginning.
Later we have to face the invading Wuhuan army.
It can be said that solving the problem in Pingyun County requires a lot of manpower and material resources, including at least tens of millions of dollars.
But after Pingyun County was recaptured, its annual tax revenue was only one million taels of gold, and part of it was handed over to the local government. The last time it went to the central court, it was only one-fifth, which was two hundred thousand taels of gold.
Even if it is a minimum of ten million taels of gold, it will take fifty years of taxation to recover it.
Apart from maintaining the dignity of the Han Dynasty, this battle has no meaning at all.
"But we can't ignore the rebels!"
Liu Hong was lying half-lying, squinting his eyes slightly.
"Your Majesty, didn't Qingfeng Village surrender and take the initiative to express surrender to the court? Isn't this a manifestation of our great Han Tianwei!"
"We only need to give Qin Yuan a name, and he can solve problems that can only be solved by tens of millions of taels of gold. Why not do it!"
"What's more, after the recruitment, His Majesty issued another imperial edict, asking them to attack the Wuhuan tribe. If the attack goes smoothly, the two big troubles will be solved together!"
Feng Xu spoke up and said, "If their crusade fails, we can settle the accounts and punish them for their crimes in the future!"
"Your Majesty, what Chief Feng said makes sense!"
Zhang Rang on the side said, "We only need to give a name to solve these big troubles, and also to stop all the officials in the court from worrying about this matter, so as not to affect His Majesty's good mood every day!"
"You are right!"
Liu Hong's eyes showed confusion and he nodded slightly.
Soon after, he fell into a deep sleep.
Zhang Rang and Feng Xu looked at each other and smiled.
The two have different purposes, but seeking peace is the result they want to see.
Zhang Rang does not want to let his relatives or the aristocratic faction seize the opportunity of this expedition, otherwise their power will grow again and will greatly threaten the eunuch faction!
Feng Xu was partly due to the Yellow Turban Army.
The next day.
Against all opinions and against the objections of hundreds of officials, Liu Hongli decided to confer Qin Yuan as the acting magistrate of Pingyun County and the general of the conquest.
